


Quirky

by Welfycat



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: stargateland, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 17:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Between living in an Ancient City in a distant galaxy, bizarre aliens, and dangerous missions, an indecisive botanist should be the least of Evan's worries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quirky

**Author's Note:**

> Written for StargateLand's TVTropes Challenge. Prompt: Pinky Swear  
> Content Notes: None. PG.

Evan Lorne wasn't really sure how to explain the thing he had going on with the botanist on his team. Or if there even was a _thing_ at all. Doctor David Parrish was a bit of an enigma; one minute he was grinning like a manic as he described a root or a plant or a something that Evan didn't quite catch, the next he was blushing bashfully and disappearing off into the halls of Atlantis.

Team nights, which Evan instituted despite how unsuccessful they were at making it a regular thing, were the same way. One night they were watching a movie, some chick flick to which Reed was disturbingly attached, and David was sitting next to him. Their knees rested against each other and David's elbow kept bumping into Evan's until Evan reached up and placed his left arm on the back of the couch. He'd been tempted more than once to let it slip down to David's shoulders, but he couldn't tell if that would be welcomed. He was glad he didn't because at the next team night, where they were playing board games, David was careful to keep at the other corner of the table from Evan at all times. As they stumbled their way through pictionary, which was always dirtier when played with marines, Evan decided that he'd been misreading the situation and tried to ignore the stab of disappointment he felt.

When Evan sat down with the rest of his team in the mess hall the next morning David stopped talking abruptly, but looked up at Evan and pushed over a carton of orange juice.

"They were almost out," David said with a shrug.

Evan smiled back and picked up the carton. He drank coffee even though he didn't really appreciate the taste most of the time, but having juice in the morning was nice. "Thank you."

David grinned, so brightly that it was like Evan had used his ATA gene to light up a room without realizing how much push he'd put behind the thought.

About halfway through breakfast, David's shoe brushed against Evan's boot and stayed there. Evan focused on his hash browns and fake bacon and decided that the Pegasus Galaxy was simply impossible: Wraith, an Ancient City, and a guy who confused Evan more than he'd been since high school.

*****

About three months after Evan had assembled his team they went on a particularly bad mission. He'd been with the SGC long enough to know that running for you life and being shot at didn't automatically make it a bad mission, and that natives with their versions of torches and pitchforks chasing them from the village was really just a good way to practice sprinting. Spending nearly twelve hours sitting by himself in a prison cell the size of an elevator - except only about three feet tall - when he had no idea where the rest of his team was or if they were even alive was a bad mission. Having to wait for Colonel Sheppard and his team to come and rescue them was even worse. Evan had already helped rescue Sheppard's team four times during off-world missions, but it was still a little bit embarrassing to need the rescue in return when there hadn't been Wraith involved at all.

When the door had finally opened and Sheppard had helped him crawl out, the first thing Evan looked for was his team. They were all there, David with a black eye and Coughlin with a field dressing on a cut on his forehead while Reed stood unharmed, and Evan grinned like an idiot.

After being cleared with the infirmary Evan had gone back to his quarters with the intent to shower and change into a clean uniform before he went down to the mess hall for dinner. Instead, he'd showered and fallen asleep on his bed in nothing more than a towel.

The sound of his door chime roused him and he blinked groggily as the lights came one and he felt around for his radio. The door chime sounded again and Evan stumbled over, rewrapping his towel more firmly around his waist. Thanks to his ATA gene the door realized that he wanted it to open and did so before Evan really had a chance to realize - in his half awake state - that he wasn't even half dressed.

"I can come back." David raised his chin so that his eyes were fixed over Evan's shoulder and held out a tray that had four sandwiches and a few cartons of juice.

Evan grabbed onto David's shoulder with his freehand when David tried to step back. "Come in. Don't leave."

David let Evan pull him inside, a deep blush running from his cheeks down to his neck and he clung to the tray.

"Just give me a minute, don't go anywhere," Evan repeated, well aquatinted with David's occasional disappearing acts. More than once, Evan had been causally talking with David only to have him go up and off into the halls of Atlantis before Evan could work out what had happened.

Evan grabbed the clothes that he'd been intending to put back on and ducked into the bathroom. He changed, quickly even for someone who was in the military, and took thirty seconds to desperately try to flatten his hair. It was sticking up on one side where he had fallen asleep with it against the bed while it was still wet. Watching the hair spring back up, Evan wondered if this was how Sheppard felt every morning. Giving it up as a lost cause, Evan went back out just in time to see David making for the door.

"I thought I told you to stay here," Evan said. He looked at the desk, where the sandwich and juice were sitting.

David shrugged, the motion looking awkward on his long form. "I didn't see you at dinner, or even after dinner, and I thought you might be hungry."

"Thank you. There's enough here for two. You must be hungry again by now," Evan said. David didn't look it but he ate as heartily as Reed and Coughlin, which was an impressive feat.

There wasn't a second chair in the room, so Evan picked up the tray and brought it over to his bed and made a space for David to sit.

It took David a moment to join him, but he did and they ate in silence for a few minutes. Evan hadn't realized that he was quite as hungry as he was.

"Why do you do that?" Evan asked as he finished the last carton of juice.

David stared at him through his eye that wasn't swollen and dark. He was as focused as Evan had ever seen him look at any plant or tree. "Do what?"

Evan waved his hand towards to the door. "Leave? You sit by me, or bring me food, and we talk. And then you just disappear."

David abruptly looked down at the quarter of the sandwich he was still holding. "I forget sometimes. The way you look at me and the way you talk to me, it sometimes makes me think that you like me as much as I like you."

"I do," Evan said. "Well, if you like me a lot."

David looked up, his entire body straightening. "Really?"

"Really," Evan agreed.

"Pinky swear?" David asked, holding out his free hand with his pinky crooked.

It took Evan a moment to process the question and the motion. "What are we, seven?" he asked, though without disdain.

"People always tell the truth when they pinky swear," David said, his mouth quirking in an odd smile.

Evan thought about it for a minute and decided that an appreciation for the strange and unusual was a gift in the Stargate Program. "Pinky swear," he agreed and hooked his pinky finger through David's. "Though I'm more accustomed to finishing a date with a kiss."

"That can be arranged," David said. Their little fingers were still linked together as David leaned in and they shared a fleeting but pleasant kiss.


End file.
